The Burning
by the man behind the curtain
Summary: The continuing adventures of the crew of the Zion ship, Imation against the forces of Fate and machines between the events of Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions.
1. Chapter 1 : Ludin

**Chapter 1: Ludin**

Charles Ludin sat at his computer screen pouring over the lines of text that streamed before his eyes. His desk sat in a small apartment that had reference manuals and various religious books covering the floor and bookshelves. Most lay open stuck on different pages, others stacked one on top of another forming tall stacks that a slight breeze would most likely knock right over. The drapes were drawn closed to block out the bright glare of the sun, while the only light in the room, came from the glow of the computer screen giving the surroundings an eerie blue tinge. The figure sat hunched over the keyboard as his eyes scanned line after line of scrolling text. His fingers flew across the keyboard entering a continuous stream of command code until a small dialog box popped up on the screen.

password required for pentagon research department.

The figure swiveled in his chair to his left and flipped a series of switches on the machine that sat there. The machine's fans came to life and the blue glow in the room was muted by a new red glow. The code breaker sat computing for a few seconds and then the popup on the screen faded and was replaced as another appeared.

password accepted.

A new line of text slid down the screen and then it stopped as the man sat back in his chair in shock. The words slipped from his lips, "this shouldn't be here..." as he rocked forward in his chair and tapped his finger on the screen.

Suddenly the silence of the room was broken by the phone ringing. As the man answers a voice is heard on the other end without him saying a word. "They're coming you must leave now" and then the line went dead. As the man stared down at the receiver in his hand in complete shock at the phone call, the door to his apartment exploded inward as it was kicked in violently from the hallway. When the dust settled three men were standing in the door way silhouetted against the light streaming in from the hall. The center man was wearing a black business suit and black sunglasses and had an air of contempt about him. "Mr. Ludin, we need you to come with us please." the man spoke in a voice that seemed to pierce the very skin of Mr. Ludin. The man to his right, who was dressed as the center man was, then said, "it is not a choice Mr. Ludin, you will come with us now, like it or not." Mr. Ludin could only rub his eyes and stare in disbelief as if looking for an answer to why in their emotionless eyes. Then his eyes wandered to the last of the three men, who was dressed in a black cloak and had black sunglasses but who had not spoken a word. In a flash this last man pulled a blade from under his cloak in one graceful stroke and beheaded the two men standing in front of him. Mr. Ludin could only stare in shock as the two men, who slumped to the floor, became Mrs. Portman and her husband, who lived down the hall in apartment 2B and then disappear into a bright flash of green light. The strange man then holstered his blade and spoke quickly. "Mr. Ludin, come with me, I'm here to take you to safety but we must leave now, they will be coming!" "You were the voice on the phone" stammered Mr. Ludin. "There is no time" replied the unknown man "you must come with me now! They are here!" 

the man rushed to Mr. Ludin's side and grabbed his arm and roughly dragged him out of his apartment and down the hall. At the head of the stairs was old Mrs. Waterbee from 2E straining against her walker and a load of groceries. As Mr. Ludin watched, Mrs. Waterbee disappeared and was replaced by another man in a black business suit and black glasses. From the man's coat, he produced a silver handgun and emptied a clip of six rounds at Mr. Ludin and the stranger. Before Mr. Ludin could even flinch, the stranger beside him again drew his blade and faster than the eye could see in a blur of motion moved as if to block the bullets with the blade. Mr. Ludin could only see the six fired bullets embed themselves into the ceiling, floor and walls in front of him. In one fluid motion the stranger pulled his own gun from his cloak and fired one round between the sunglass covered eyes. As he fell to the ground he disappeared and became Mrs. Waterbee once again with blood pouring from the hole in her forehead. "Look I know it's a cliché", spoke the man in an unwavering tongue "but come with me if you want to live"

Mr. Ludin and the man ran down the stairs and out of the empty main apartment lobby into a waiting van sitting idling at the curb on the deserted street. The moon hung low in the sky meaning that dawn was only a few hours away. Several hands from within the darkness of the van pulled both inside and then the door was slammed shut. "Where... where are you taking me..." Mr. Ludin managed to stammer. The driver turned his head and said "Its no longer safe for you to remain here, we need to get you out of this place" "but why me?" asked Mr. Ludin. "All will be explained soon Mr. Ludin, so sit back and relax" was all the driver said in response. After what seemed like driving for hours the van stopped and the passengers all got out. Looking up Mr. Ludin could see they were standing in front of a large cathedral. The rain from the previous night was thinning finally and the sun was trying to peek through, causing the stain-glass windows in the cathedral to appear as if they were glowing from within. Mr. Ludin looked as his strange kidnappers exited the van; he was shocked to see four men get out all armed with either a blade or a firearm, each scanning the surroundings. Mr. Ludin's eyes wandered towards the cathedral and looking up the front stairs he could see a black man walking down them towards him. He too wore a black cloak and suit much like the others, with a pair of glasses that seemed to float on the bridge of his nose. With one hand he led Mr. Ludin up the stairs of the cathedral and through the giant front doors. Once inside the mysterious man spoke in a powerful and calming voice "welcome Mr. Ludin, its time for you to understand" "understand what?" answered Mr. Ludin as he gazed around the cathedral frightened of the events that had just unfolded. "Understand what can not be shown, what can not be told, what you must discover for yourself. You must understand why man is a slave..."


	2. Chapter 2 : Fate

**Chapter 2: Fate**

The rain was streaking the windows of the penthouse suite of the Hampton Hotel in what looked like 21st Century New York City. Sitting in a plush seat facing the front door, was a man dressed in a black business suit with red tinted glasses swirling in his hand a glass of scotch causing the ice cubes to clink against the sides. The man was easily six and half feet tall and when standing could tower over most grown men. His jet black hair was combed neatly back behind his ears, matching the depthlessness of his black eyes. A fire crackled in the fireplace to his left but the warth it gave off seemed to be consumed by the overall chill in the room. On the table before him an unfinished steak lay half eaten, with knife and fork placed neatly aside. On the right armrest of the plush chair, sat a brightly polished .44 magnum pistol and a smoldering cigar in an ashtray balancing on the end. The silence of the room was interrupted by a knock at the door.

"Come in" replied the man sitting in the chair. "Mr. Black, I see you have returned. Did all go as planned?"

The new man who entered the dark penthouse from the hall, dressed in black and wearing black glasses, took a seat opposite to the man speaking. "I'm afraid we had a mix-up at the retrieval location you gave us. We were ambushed by some rebels and failed to capture the prisoner before was escaped."

"According to my sources, Mr. Black" the man coldly replied as he placed his glass down on the table before him next to the plate "your men were taken down by one man, with a blade of all things, and if that wasn't enough, you yourself were shot dead with a single bullet." The man's tone started to rise as anger started to creep in. "So, tell me Mr. Black how do you explain that?"

"Now boss" Mr. Black replied obviously shaken by his boss's acid tone "you have to understand this one man caught us by surprise and we were not prepared to take him on."

"Who was this strange man you speak of that even with two other agent, you could not apprehend let alone even lay a blow on" the man said from his chair while he crossed his fingers in front of his face.

"Well boss, we don't really know exactly except that his skill with a blade is unmatched by our men and as for how that one shot got me I don't know. What we do know is that he and his accomplices have been in the matrix before and belong to some group that call themselves 'The Church'. Our records do not contain much information about this group wandering around, must be some kind of group of religious nuts or something."

For a brief moment the color drained from the seated man's face "Did you say the Church Mr. Black?" as his face flushed red with growing anger at the sound of the name.

"Yes boss, that's what the others tells me. Who are they exactly, have you run into them before?"

"Yes and no. but that is no concern of yours now. I gave you an easy mission Mr. Black and Church or not, you should have been able to bring in a single little pest. Therefore..." getting up from is chair and walking behind Mr. Black "I have decided to reassign you to another duty that should be easier for you."

"Thank you si..." before the man could spit out his appreciation, the man standing behind him brought his hand down to the base of Mr. Black's head and with a flick of his wrist broke his neck. Mr. Black however did not change into another person in this instant as a vanquished agent would do but instead became millions of lines of green computer code outlining his body. The man, placing his hand on the shoulder of the late Mr. Black, caused a ripple in the lines of green code, which were then absorbed into his hand. Within moments the entire body of Mr. Black had been absorbed into the man. Flexing the fingers on his outstretched hand, he returned to his seat and took a drink of his glass of scotch sitting on the table.

"Well Mr. Black it would appears you had another duty after all." saying this the man started to spasm very violently and with each movement of his body, which was that of great pain, he appeared to glow slightly. After several moments the spasming ceased and the man slumped forward in his chair. Pulling himself from his chair, he once again the man took a drink from his scotch, and walked towards the windows behind him. Placing a hand on the window frame he looked down upon the city below, an endless sea of tiny lights, blurred from vision by the rain streaming down the windows and silhouetted by the occasional lightning.

"Hmm, so the Church is bothering in my business again. Well we'll just have to wait until they see what role **fate** has left to play in their plans."

Even outside the window, as the lightning flashed, the sinister laughter could still be heard.


	3. Chapter 3 : Munikc

**Chapter 3: Munikc**

The Imation floated gently in the tunnels under what once was Dallas, Texas. its body looked like a cigar with six retractable legs and a layer of metallic moss all over it. A single tower protruded from its right side about a third of the way down and was only about twenty feet tall. The Imation itself was about the length of two atomic submarines and about 40 meters wide at the center. A large glass window covered the piloting room and command deck. The rear of the ship contained engineering and the launch tubes. While its sister ship the Nebacanezer had been build at the prime of Zion construction, the Imation was its general prototype, being about a year older and certain looked worse for wear. Its hull was covered with various parts from other human ships that gave it a Frankenstein look. Under its rocky and mismatched exterior of parts however, beat the heart of a war ship. Many a glorious mission had been fought on this ship and she was the pride and joy of its crew. On the main bridge the crew finds a new day beginning with a friendly debriefing by the captain.

Munikc could not have been more than a few years shy of thirty, but the years fighting machines inside and outside the matrix was starting to take a toll on him. He was a tall man whose commanding presence made him a natural for a second in command aboard a Zion ship, but his captain had been promoted off the ship, so he was left in the place of captain. Born in the matrix and freed as a youth, Munikc had displayed an unnatural ability at piloting ships. When he was only 15, he snuck aboard an outgoing Zion craft and instantly fell in love with it, the smell, the creak of the engines, and the endlessly winding tunnels. When his ship, where he had stowed away on, had fallen under heavy squiddy attack and the pilot killed, Munikc had taken the wheel and managed to elude an even larger attack force before limping back to Zion, the ship barely afloat. He was arrested on the spot and spent several months in the brig, but he was soon released and was immediately put in pilot training after someone realized what he had done. He finished the course in half the time of a regular recruit, and soon became one of the best pilots in Zion. However after being blamed for a botched rescue mission that resulted in the death of half the rescue party and saving only two crew members, he was court marshaled for flying recklessly. The survivors however stood up for him saying that he was the only reason they were alive was because of his daring flying skills. The council however was not swayed by their testimony and stripped him of his commission. He wandered from ship to ship until he landed on the Imation as a stroke of luck, since their pilot had just transferred to the Nebacanezer. Munikc was immediately hired and has flown with them ever since through thick and thin.

Munikc stood at the end of a long metal table were the crew of the Imation had gathered to listen to the morning debriefing. He had read over the communication that had been received from Zion and was now trying to calm the growing unrest in his crew.

"Well guys Mr. Ludin has been safety taken out of the matrix and is now being picked up by the Icarus recovery ship. We should be getting a debriefing from him in about a week or so once the plugs all come out and he becomes accustomed to living in Zion. According to the scan we did of his computer and his target criteria used for his searching, we have determined he was looking into a series of strange disturbances that seem to suggest an increase of fluctuations in the matrix code. There have been rumors of certain sections of the matrix being tweaked more than usual. Normally these changes are small in nature and most plugged-in do not notice these changes, however these more recent changes are larger in nature and are starting to alert the general populous. While Zion can not give up any other info right now, aside from saying they are investigating the problem; they do send their regards for a successful extraction."

A hushed murmur and rolling of eyes proceeded.

"They also add that we are to proceed with the previous mission on the drawing board and bomb yet another machine distribution node."

A chorus of groans emanated from the crew sitting around the briefing table.

"Come on guys we need to make sure that we find out what Mr. Ludin was looking for and until we get the results, we need to help Zion. So I'll make a call to Virii in the Zion council and see if he knows anything more than they are telling us officially. Then we will jack in and get another medal for bravery."

The crew dispersed as the captain made a long distance video call to Zion. After a few moments a man appears on the screen. The man is about the same age of Munikc and looks dead tired but smiles at seeing the captain's face.

"Sorry to bother you Virii, but we here want to know if you guys got anything yet with the Mr. Ludin investigation."

"Munikc is that you? What in gods name are you doing calling me at 2 am, never mind it's good to see you. To answer your question, we don't have anything yet on Mr. Ludin's research except some brief intel on that agent you killed twice last week getting Mr. Ludin out."

"Yeah, what about him?"

"Well according to matrix records he entered a penthouse in New York and then was erased."

"Erased! But how and by who, maybe the matrix or another?"

"Right now we don't know. We suspect that his employer was not happy with his failure and terminated him."

"That's impossible. You can't terminate an agent for good. A body of a host should have been left behind. I don't understand"

"well friend we don't either, so we want you and your crew to be careful. I have a bad feeling about all this and we here in Zion don't want to lose the best ship in the fleet."

"Virii, we both know, that's not the truth. Sure we've come through some suicidal missions with only a few scratches, but we are the smudge on the good record of Zion. And don't forget to watch your own hide there Virii, Zion really isn't the place we set out to save in the first place. We'll handle our end; just don't get lost in it all bureaucracy. Munikc signing out."

Munikc rocked backwards and relaxed into his chair and sat looking out the forward windows to the Imation. A slight fog was rolling in surrounding the ship, a good sign. Whenever there was fog, Munikc knew they were in over their heads and that's where they liked it. 


	4. Chapter 4 : Virii

**Chapter 4: Virii **

Virii slumped back down into his chair. He had been in the office all evening and just when he thought he could sneak away from it all, his friend Munikc had to call. Virii didn't like lying to Munikc about how much he actually knew. The little bit Virii did know would not help Munikc but it could prove to be a liability. Virii let loud a long sigh as if trying to release all the pressure and stress that had built up over the day.

Virii's office was one of the largest of the compound for the council of Zion. He was offered a job in the council for his exploits and despite his reluctance was one of the more powerful members. The office itself was not extravagantly decorated, save the wall to his left his collection of sharpened blades and pistols, the only true remaining proof that he was once a great warrior on the edge of the system. No longer were Virii's days filled with plugging into the matrix and fighting agents of all varieties, but with tedious meetings about ships that flew cargo from point A to B. Any action related news seemed distance and never seemed to touch him like his previous life had. Valiant hero to dull politician in the brief span of a matter of months. Virii sighed again and tried to place himself in a trance to try and recover his composure and regain his strength.

Pixel, Virii's secretary and closest confidant, walked in to find Virii in a deep trance in his plush red leather chair behind his desk. Finding her boss in this position brought a smile to her face and made her feel at ease, though just being around Virii was cause enough for that. She walked towards the desk and placed on the pile of other papers, the most recent intelligence reports he had requested. Hopefully he would find in the morning to read them she thought to herself. Finding the blanket that Virii kept neatly folded in the closet, Pixel covered her boss up. Pixel smiled to herself at how peaceful he looked and then left the room, turning off the lights as she did so.

The city of Zion slept unaware.

Morning for Virii brought no relief. His presence was requested at the military briefing room and so there he went in a state of disarray. Pixel tried as best she could to get Virii totally awake and ready with only moderate success. She managed to straighten his coat and get him a cup of coffee.

"What would I do without you Pixel?" said Virii after he had a few swigs of the coffee and appeared to return to the living.

"Not a whole lot Virii." she replied with a grin and then left him at the door to the council's main office.

The meeting was long and boring and Virii had trouble concentrating on what was transpiring. The machine attacks on Zion ships had been steadily increasing over the last month, with the machines pushing farther and farther into Zion controlled territory. Normally this would have been have been a break from the monotony of the rest of his days, but a thought in the back of his mind was troubling him. The frequency and apparent perfection in application of these events could only sway his mind that there was something else bigger than these events going on, possibly someone or something dictating these events. Rubbing the weariness from his eyes, he decided that he really needed a break tonight and decided to ask Pixel if she would like to go out to dinner with him to blow off some steam. It would be a distraction from the events going on around him but he knew things still weren't looking up. 


	5. Chapter 5 : The Matrix

**Chapter 5: The Matrix**

Qu overlooked the jack-in room of the Imation, with its rows of computer monitors spewing green code and vitals for the crew. The Imation was equipped with 10 chairs and plugs but the crew rarely used half of them. The chairs themselves were leather that had been worn smooth from the numerous missions that they had seen. The keyboards that Qu sat behind he knew just by lightly touching them where he was. Being operator on a ship with missions generally dangerous made it necessary for him to be quick on his fingers. While he had not seen action in the matrix for many years, like his friends had, he still remembered how it all worked.

Born in the matrix, Qu was the runt of his family. The youngest of three brothers, Qu faded into the background of his household. The resistance came to his house when he was only 7 years old, looking for his oldest brother, who at the time was starting to come to the attention of the machines. The resistance wanted him because his showed promise in various fields of electronics, especially in areas essential to zion ship and squiddy construction. Qu followed the men as they led his brother to a warehouse where they met several others. After following the group up stairs and hiding in the room where his brother sat with another, Qu listened to the typical red pill/ blue pill debate. His brother was not convinced however of the truths he man spoke of and chose the blue pill. As they left the room, Qu came out from his hiding place and took the red pill. Only when he stumbled into the next room, in a cold sweat, did the extraction team realize what was going on. Even though he was not the primary target, Qu was separated from the matrix almost as an inconvience on the recovery team. While resting on the Aeris recovery ship, he wandered into the plug room while the crew had fallen asleep. He was perplexed and equally dumbfounded at the scrolling lines of green code on the command screens.

The captain found him the next morning, still staring at the screens, but as he tried to pull him away from them, Qu murmured "Oh thats new" and pointed lazily at the screen. The captain stared down at the boy who seemed in an almost dreamlike state and then to the screens. He stared at the screens for a moment to try and find the anomoly that the boy had seen, but he could not see it. "Where? What is new?" The captain asked shacking the boy to try and ruse him from his dream state. "There it is, clear as day" the boy murmured and again pointed to the screen as his head slumped forward against his chest. The captain looked closer and to his amazement saw that the boy was right. A small section of the scrolling code had changed, almost imperceptively. However the change was a big deal, as the captain realized that another team was working in that area, and the change could only mean one thing. The shift in code was a preparation command machines used to make an area easier for agents to infiltrate. Normally when an agent takes control of a body in the matrix, several lines of code are implemented all at once, allowing the transformation to occur. An operatator with a good eye will see this change happen and warn his crew of the danger. More recently, when a high priority capture is sanctioned, this preparation command is used to allow the normal string of code to be shortened. Its like preloading the agent into the available bodies. The lines of code when the transformation occurs end up being shorted and thus easier to miss. The captain realized that the boy had spotted the preloading of agents in the area of what was supposed to be a secret infiltration mission. Hastily he grabbed the head phones and broke protocol in broadcasting to a ship under strick silent running. The operator who received the message looked at the code and failed to see the small change in the code. After much convincing by the captain on the line, he ordered the mission to be scrapped and all units to return to the ship. The men on the group imediately headed to the exit point, only to find agents hot on their tail. Their appearance was swift, but with the foresight by the calling captain, all hands made it safely back to the ship. Upon returning to zion after the failed mission, the captain was questioned as to why he disobeyed orders and transmitted a signal. He explained the entire series of events and presented the small boy, Qu, to the council. The council found that this unexpected retrieval, could read the matrix code with no formal training at all. He was immediately placed in a training facility and by the time he joined the crew of the Imation on his 22nd birthday, he was one of the best operatators in zion. When he went back later to find out the fate of his brother, he was saddened to find that the machines had used his body for an agent and that he was killed sometime later. To have your soul bound into a machine and then lost was a scary thought and Qu hoped he would never have to enter that world again.

Munikc left his cabin and proceeded to the jack-in room to find Qu powering up the machines for their trip into the matrix.

"How goes it Qu?" he asked.  
"Well captain, we have full power and I've hacked the matrix so the mission is a go." Qu replied.  
"How many times do I have to tell you Qu, don't call me captain."  
"Yes captain."

Munikc looked at Qu with disgust, rolled his eyes, and then sat down in his chair for the trip into the matrix. "Where's the rest of the crew?" he asked Qu. "Port and Splice? They'll be here momentarily. Splice said something about grabbing some tool program" replied Qu. Munikc laid back and smiled thinking about what his crack-pot engineer was going to bring along on this mission. The last time, he tried to make an agent repeller but only to have it back fire and they had to fight off 20 agents instead of only 2. Munikc closed his eyes and waited for the plunge.

When Munikc opened his eyes again he was in the matrix sitting in the back of a black Cadillac. His crew mates Port, a young hot-headed swordsman and hacker, in the passenger side seat and his engineer driving. Both Munikc and Port wore black clothes and had black cloaks with dark sunglasses, but the driver was a little different, seeing as he wore a dirty burnt red jacket-coat that went down to just above knees. He too was wearing black clothes underneath but his glasses were small, rectangular and blood red.

"Splice, why did you wear that suit again? We aren't trying to attract attention to ourselves here." Munikc said to the driver.

"Well Munikc, I don't like those black capes, plus there's no room under there for my gun." Splice retorted. Splice was right thought Munikc; it is kind of hard to hide all the ammo Splice needed for his guns.

"Ok Splice, we have a deadline so let's gets a move on." a defeated Munikc said. "I just hope you brought a good tool this time."

"It's sitting on the seat next to you, why don't you have a look." Splice replied as he started the car engine.

It was at this moment that Munikc looked over to his left and saw Splice's bomb sitting in a duffel bag on the seat next to him. There were enough explosives there to relocate a house to about a block away. Splice pulled the car smoothly into traffic and headed downtown as the other members of the Imation crew checked their guns and sharpened their blades.


	6. Chapter 6 : The Bank Job

**Chapter 6: The Bank Job**

The black Cadillac calmly pulled up to the front of the First National Bank of São Paulo and took a parking space directly across from the main doors. It was morning in the tourist region of the city so the streets were starting to fill with various tour groups finding their buses headed for the beaches. From the car emerged Munikc carrying a large black gym bag, Port to his left and Splice slightly behind and to his right. They crossed the street and entered the bank to upon an incredibly ornate lobby. They stopped for a moment to stare up at the 40 ft ceiling with several hanging glass chandelier fixtures. The two back walls, that weren't covered floor to ceiling with windows, were covered in reproduction of famous paintings that hung in some of the greatest museums in the world. The teller windows where gold plated and had moderate lines of tourists cashing all types of checks. Towards the back of the bank stood a party of four heavily armed guards behind a row of metal detectors that separated the private meeting rooms and security boxes from the general banking patrons. Several security cameras also scanned the bank floor from above and were no doubt connected directly to a top of the line security firm, moments away, ready to react to the smallest glimpse of trouble.

"Why do they always hide these damn nodes in such nice places?" pondered Port aloud, as he followed the two others towards the security guards in the back of the room.

"Banks tend to have the best security around, so it's less likely they would be found by the unsuspecting world." Splice replied as they neared the security checkpoint.

"Well here we go." Munikc said to his partners and as followed Splice as he passed through the metal detector.

weeeeee went the alarm as the meter spiked all the way to the red limit at the detection of metal. A fifth unarmed guard approached Splice, as the other four shifted their attention lazily in his direction, and asked "Please remove any metallic objects you may be carrying and place them in this basket."

"Why does that sound familiar" Munikc whispered to Port. Splice lifted his arms to show single metal rod coming from up his left sleeve and then strapped to his wrist with a gun grip handle. As the guard took a step back at the strange sight before him, Splice let his hand drop.

"What is that..." said the guard as he was interrupted by a whirling sound and then a loud clank and as from Splice's sleeve came a single miniaturized Vulcan cannon on a pre-fire warm-up. The guard could only form an 'O' with his mouth as the gun began to speak. The sound was deafening as the Gatling gun ripped apart the guard and then moved towards his friends. None had a chance to react, and after only a few seconds all the guards were dead and the spinning barrels fell silent. 

"My god splice, did you have to kill all of them so quickly? I wanted some of the action." spouted Port who had drawn his blade and pistol from their hidden holster. 

"Sometimes surprise is of the utmost importance Port." retorted Splice back at his partner. 

"Come on boys we need to get up stairs to that node and destroy it." Munikc shouted over the arguing.

By this time the entire bank was empty as everyone who had a brain had jumped through the front windows and escaped. The silent alarm had been tripped and down the street at the security firm protecting the building, four heavily armed teams of men left the compound for the bank. The three of them standing beyond the metal detectors, reloaded and proceeded to the main business elevator. A gentle melody of classical music accompanied them one the elevator ride up the four floors to the target. After the elevator doors opened they found a floor deserted of the employees that normally would fill the cubicle hell in front of them. Making their way to the server room on the floor, they found the false wall in the back of the room, they found the node.

A matrix node is a representation in the matrix of essentially a debug console. A single node could control an area in the matrix the size of several blocks or upwards of several hundred acres if they were clustered. Destroying a node made it easier for the resistance to unplug persons of interest because it prevented the matrix from making changes to that area of the matrix until the node was repaired. Also people in the matrix were more likely to become aware of it because glitches were more prevalent in areas without direct node control.

As they set up the bomb, Port said "You know it's a shame to destroy this very nice bank just to get this node."

"True but it had to be done. Taking just the node out means the machines will just get another one up and running in a day or so. Dropping a building on top of where it was will take longer." replied Munikc "Why the machine just don't move the node to another location is beyond me, but its always right back in the same place."

"There I got what I want now lets get out of here before she blows us all up." Splice replied as he replaced a small device back into his pocket and double checked the bomb. The three of them then again returned to the elevator and pressed the button for the main floor, but when they exited the elevator at the lobby, they were met with a daunting task. In the lobby now stood 10 agents all with guns drawn and pointed towards them, with the rest of the security forces starting to fortify themselves outside.

"Freeze!" shouted the agent in front. With a glance from one another, Munikc started to grin. His hand went down to his belt where his blade lay sheathed as Port did the same. The agents saw him go for his weapon and instantly had the order to fire. In the split second that the agents pulled the trigger both Munikc and Port drew their blades and splice cranked his gun. Time slowed as Munikc and Port blocked most of the shots fired into the surrounding walls and door of the elevator with the whirling of their blades. Meanwhile Splice had pumped several of the agents' bodies with over 500 armor piercing rounds before his gun fell silent. Detaching the empty gun from his back he drew a pair of pistols and finished off the agent approaching him. As the dust settled only one agent managed to still be standing, albeit kneeing from gunshot wounds. That one was immediately beheaded by Munikc as he ran across the lobby towards the front doors.

"Phew that was close only about 30 seconds until she goes." sighed Splice as they ran out the doors of the bank, down the stairs and across the street into the waiting Cadillac. The security forces that were outside were eliminated by the three in a hail of gun fire from their drawn pistols. Splice punched the accelerator and the car lurched down the road into unsuspecting traffic. Even after traveling two blocks away they could still feel the blast as the bomb detonated. The fourth floor of the building instantly disintegrated and the 15 floors above it came crashing down as the support structure failed gloriously. The lower floors could not hold back the rush of falling rubble and were crushing down to ground level. In the span of only 30 seconds the once magnificent building was reduced to a pile of smoldering rubble.

Before the team could cheer, a spray of bullets ripped the back window of the Cadillac apart. The rear of the car was soon shot apart by the following onslaught of fire, as the taillights were unceremoniously shot out and the trunk buckled and flew off the back of the car. Munikc reloading his drawn pistol from his cloak returned fire on the approaching four large SUV's that each held three agents in hot pursuit. The trip back home would be no piece of cake.


End file.
